Debugging Groovy scripts running in a ScriptEngine from Eclipse

Question

I have a Groovy script which is run like this:

File scriptFile = ...;
ScriptEngine engine = ...;
String script = FileUtils.readFileToString(scriptFile);
Object evalResult = engine.eval(script, bindings);

Unsurprisingly, breakpoint set in the script file doesn't trigger. What can I change to make it work? The script needs to be run in the context of the larger program (no separate launch configuration), and through a ScriptEngine, and the file is only known at runtime.

Answer 1

I'm using this hack: I've defined a Java class Debugger which looks like this:

public class Debugger {

    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger( Debugger.class );

    /**
     * Invoke this method anywhere to end up in the Java debugger.
     * 
     * <p>Sometimes, you have code that might eventually be executed or you have a place
     * where you want to stop but no code line.
     * 
     * <p>In these case, use this method.
     * 
     * <p>Don't forget to set a breakpoint, first :-)
     * */
    public static void stopInDebugger() {
        log.error( "Please set a breakpoint in Debugger.stopInDebugger() and try again whatever you just did!" );
    }
}

I have a breakpoint in the log.error line in Ecipse.

Now, I can put this line into the script where I want a breakpoint:

Debugger.stopInDebugger();

Granted, it doesn't allow me to easily step through the script but it's better than nothing.